Users rely on different online services to make their work or personal lives more efficient. However, because there are often many competing requests for users' attention, these online services need to compete not only in getting users to sign-up to use the online service, but also in keeping them engaged with the online service. Otherwise, users may begin to use the online service less and less, until finally the user stops using the online service entirely. On the other hand, engaged users are often passionate about online services they use, making it more likely they will not only continue using the service, but also potentially upgrade their level of service with the online service and recommend it to friends, family, and coworkers.
One way to do this is by continually improving the online service, so that it offers more reasons for users to not only continue using functionality users have already encountered, but also offers new ways to make the online service even more helpful. In the Internet context, where online service feature sets are continuously enriched and expanded, teaching users about features is especially tricky. For example, an online service may wish to promote to a user a feature of their service. This may be a feature that the user has never used before, such as a new or recently improved feature of the online service. The challenge for the service, then, becomes how to get the user to try the feature.
One way to let users know about new features is to display, for example on a landing web page, information on the new features. Another way to teach users how to use new features is to develop comprehensive documentation for users to review and learn about the new features. However, these are cumbersome approaches that users oftentimes ignore. For example, users shown new features on the landing page may not understand how these features may help them. Additionally, users may not want to go through documentation to learn how to use features or may not have the energy or time to do so.
Therefore, there is a need for improved methods to get users more engaged with an online service.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the description of the invention and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.